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Percentage of Americans who have used ride-hailing apps such as Uber and Lyft : 15

Who have never heard of them : 33

Amount the Saudi government has announced it will invest in Uber : $3,500,000,000

Number of Saudi Uber vehicles that will be driven by women : 0

Number of votes received by Waad Qannam, the winner of the Palestinian reality show The President : 245,000

Number of years by which the actual Palestinian presidential election has been delayed : 6

Minimum amount Donald Trump’s campaign has disbursed to Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Palm Beach : $423,371

Percentage of Republicans who said they prioritized gun control over gun rights in 1999 : 53

In 2015 : 26

Minimum number of U.S. politicians who have distributed AR-15 assault rifles at campaign events this year : 3

Portion of congressional districts that backed presidential and congressional candidates from different parties in 1980 : 1/3

In 2012 : 1/17

Number of statewide elected offices in Texas that are held by Democrats : 1

Number of times the state of Texas has sued the federal government during the Obama Administration : 44

Year in which the Defense Department will stop using floppy disks as part of its nuclear-weapons program : 2017

Number of license plates a senior Pentagon official was accused of stealing off a local nanny’s car in April : 4

Number of federal prisoners who were mistakenly held longer than they should have been between 2009 and 2014 : 152

Who were released earlier than they should have been : 5

Percentage of federal workers who are internally ranked as “fully successful” : 99

As “unacceptable” : 0.1

Number of electronic surveillance requests made to the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court last year : 1,457

Number that were denied : 0

Number of soccer hooligans who were arrested during the first week of the Euro 2016 tournament : 323

Who were deported : 24

Date on which English Heritage banned alcohol use at Stonehenge : 6/18/2016

Percentage change in attendance at the Stonehenge summer-solstice celebration since last year : –50

Portion of Americans prescribed painkillers in the past year who have leftovers in their home : 3/5

Who have shared them with someone else : 1/5

Chances a loan cosigner in the United States will end up repaying some part of the loan : 2 in 5

Percentage of Pell Grant recipients at public universities who graduate within six years : 45

Average change in annual earnings for students who attend a vocational program at a public community college : +$1,544

For students who attend one at a for-profit college : –$920

Minimum number of U.S. colleges that have agreed to open food pantries for students and staff : 311

Estimated total amount held on prepaid Starbucks rewards cards : $1,200,000,000

Number of hedge funds that began operating during the first quarter of 2016 : 206

Number that shut down : 291

Amount of aid Connecticut agreed in May to provide Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund : $22,000,000

Amount the New York Federal Reserve Bank accidentally transferred this year to scammers in the Philippines : $81,000,000

Number of bank employees in Changzhi, China, who were publicly spanked in June for poor performance : 8

Figures cited are the latest available as of July 2016.

“Harper’s Index” is a registered trademark.


September Index Sources

1,2 Pew Research Center (Washington)
3,4 Uber (San Francisco)
5,6 Search for Common Ground (Jerusalem)
7 Federal Election Commission
8,9 Pew Research Center
10 Representative Andy Holt (Nashville, Tenn.)/Greg Evers for Congress (Baker, Fla.)/Tim Neville for Senate (Littleton, Colo.)
11,12 American Enterprise Institute (Washington)
13 Office of the Texas Secretary of State (Austin)
14 Texas Office of the Attorney General (Austin)
15 U.S. Government Accountability Office (Denver)
16 Metropolitan Police Department (Washington)
17,18 Office of the Inspector General, U.S. Department of Justice
19,20 U.S. Government Accountability Office (Washington)
21,22 National Security Division, U.S. Department of Justice
23,24 Service d’Information et de Communication de la Police Nationale (Paris)
25,26 English Heritage (London)
27,28 Colleen Barry, Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore)
29 CreditCards.com (Austin, Tex.)
30 U.S. Department of Education
31,32 Stephanie Riegg Cellini, George Washington University (Washington)
33 College and University Food Bank Alliance (Raleigh, N.C.)
34 Starbucks (Seattle)
35,36 Hedge Fund Research, Inc. (Chicago)
37 Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (Hartford)/Connecticut Hedge Fund Association (Greenwich)
38 Federal Reserve Bank of New York
39 Changzhi Municipal Government Information Office (China).

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